LIT 499-08 Early American Women Writers
Michele Tarter
Class Meetings: Wednesday 8:00am-10:50am
This capstone seminar will explore the meanings of gendered experience and literary expression for women in early America. With a particular focus on the public and private elocution of women living between 1630 and 1800, our interdisciplinary study will delve into the lives and writings of women by looking at such primary documents as diaries and commonplace books, trial and court records, Indian captivity narratives, prophetic and spiritual memoirs, poetry, and bestselling Revolutionary fiction. Ultimately, we will address the historical, literary, and cultural influences that shaped women’s lives at this time and then discern the ways that women addressed and even subverted such influences through the power of the written word